Anti-inflammatory diet: the food list I actually use every day

Type "anti-inflammatory foods" into Google and you get lists of 50 foods with turmeric at the top and a photo of a blueberry bowl. It's pretty, it's true, and it doesn't help you at 7 pm when you open your fridge.

What changed the way I eat wasn't learning that turmeric is anti-inflammatory. It was understanding why my body reacted to certain meals with a bloated belly, skin that flared up and a background fatigue, and building a pantry that works in my favour. Here is that list, the way I actually use it.

What "low-grade inflammation" really means

Inflammation, in itself, is a good thing. It's your body's response to an attack: a cut, a virus, a sprain. It's strong, fast, and it stops when the problem is solved.

Low-grade inflammation is something else. It's weak, silent, and above all it doesn't stop. It's kept going by lifestyle: a diet high in fast sugars and ultra-processed foods, lack of sleep, chronic stress, sitting all day. It doesn't hurt like a sprain. It shows up as vague signals: fatigue that won't lift, unpredictable digestion, reactive skin, diffuse aches, harder periods.

And that's where the plate comes in. Every meal sends a signal to your body. Some foods stoke this background inflammation, others temper it. Over a day, it changes nothing. Over months, it changes everything.

How we score an anti-inflammatory food

When we built Solaia, we wanted to move away from "good" and "bad". Every recipe in the app has an anti-inflammatory score out of 100. The score looks at the whole plate: the presence of omega-3s, spices, colourful vegetables, fibre and good fats on one side, the share of fast sugars, refined flours and processed products on the other.

It gives results that are sometimes surprising. A red lentil dahl with coconut milk, turmeric and spinach scores 100. A butternut squash and chickpea curry too. A salmon and mango tartare, 100. On the other hand, a chicken, curry and mango wrap in a tortilla, with those same "healthy" ingredients, drops to 45, because the wheat tortilla and the sauce weigh heavily on the whole.

Across the app's 352 recipes, the average is 82, and 87 recipes reach 90 or above. What that taught me: it's not one ingredient that makes a plate anti-inflammatory, it's the combination. A star food drowned in refined stuff saves nothing. Simple foods combined well work wonders.

The stars of my pantry

Here's what I always have at home, grouped by family. You don't need to buy everything. One or two items per family is enough to get started.

Omega-3s

This is the most important family in my eyes, because it's the one most missing from our plates. Omega-3s are the raw materials for molecules that calm inflammation, whereas an excess of omega-6 (sunflower oil, industrial products) does the opposite.

• Oily fish: sardines, mackerel, salmon, herring. Tinned sardines in water are my secret weapon: cheap, ready in two minutes, rich in calcium too.
• Ground flaxseeds and chia seeds: a tablespoon a day in porridge or a smoothie.
• Walnuts: a handful as a snack.
• Rapeseed, flaxseed or walnut oil for dressings, never for cooking.

Spices and herbs

• Turmeric, always with a pinch of black pepper, which multiplies its absorption, and some fat.
• Ginger, fresh preferably, grated into a broth, a juice or a tea.
• Cinnamon, which also helps soften the blood sugar response of a breakfast.
• Garlic, onion, fresh herbs: parsley, coriander, basil, dill. They're not just for flavour.

Colourful vegetables

The rule I set myself: at least three colours per meal. Each colour corresponds to a different family of antioxidants.

• Leafy greens: spinach, kale, rocket, chard.
• Cruciferous vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts.
• Reds and oranges: peppers, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potato, squash.
• Red and purple fruits: blueberries, raspberries, cherries, beetroot, red cabbage.
• Citrus for vitamin C, which also helps absorb iron.

Legumes and whole grains

For fibre, which feeds the microbiome, and for stable blood sugar, which is an anti-inflammatory factor in its own right.

• Lentils, chickpeas, white and red beans.
• Quinoa, buckwheat, brown or black rice, rolled oats.
• Wholemeal sourdough or rye bread, rather than white bread.

Good fats

• Extra virgin olive oil, for cooking on low heat and for dressings.
• Avocado.
• Nuts and seeds: almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pumpkin seeds. Unsalted, not roasted in oil.

Fermented foods

A healthy gut means less inflammation passing into the blood. Kefir, plain yoghurt, raw sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, tempeh. A small portion a day, no need for more.

The foods to limit, without demonising them

I don't believe in lists of forbidden foods. They create frustration, and frustration always wins in the end. What I do is reduce the frequency of what keeps inflammation going, and leave room for pleasure.

• Fast sugars and industrial sweet products: fizzy drinks, biscuits, pastries, breakfast cereals. This is lever number one. A blood sugar spike is in itself an inflammatory signal.
• Refined flours: white bread, white pasta, tortillas, pastries. These are what drag down the score of otherwise well-intentioned recipes.
• Ultra-processed products, recognisable by their endless ingredient lists.
• Oils rich in omega-6: sunflower, corn, grapeseed, and the fried foods that come with them.
• Cured and processed meats.
• Alcohol, in regular amounts.

A simple rule that helps me: when a craving for something sweet or for white bread comes along, I don't forbid it, I accompany it. A square of dark chocolate after a full meal is not the same thing as a bar of milk chocolate at 4 pm on an empty stomach.

The link between inflammation, hormones and the cycle

This is the point that generic lists forget, and yet it's the one that matters most for us.

Inflammation and hormones are linked in both directions. Background inflammation disrupts insulin sensitivity, which in turn throws off the other hormones. It amplifies the production of prostaglandins, the molecules responsible for menstrual cramps. It makes the skin more reactive to the hormonal shifts of the second half of the cycle.

And in the other direction, the cycle modulates inflammation. During the menstrual phase, it's naturally higher. In the luteal phase, the drop in insulin sensitivity makes the body more vulnerable to sugar spikes. That's why, in Solaia, the recipes tagged for the menstrual phase have the highest average score, 84 out of 100: it's the moment when the plate has the most effect.

Concretely, what I adjust:

• During my period: I raise omega-3s and ginger.
• In the luteal phase: I watch fast sugars and raise magnesium.
• All year round: fibre and fermented foods, because a healthy gut properly clears excess oestrogen.

Building a simple anti-inflammatory plate

Here's the method I apply at every meal, without thinking. Four boxes to tick:

1. A protein: oily fish, eggs, legumes, tofu or tempeh, poultry.
2. Two vegetables of different colours, including a green one if possible.
3. A quality carb: sweet potato, quinoa, lentils, brown rice, or no carb in the evening if I'm not hungry.
4. A good fat and a spice: a drizzle of olive oil and turmeric, pumpkin seeds and ginger, avocado and fresh herbs.

One example that ticks everything: a salmon fillet, a roasted sweet potato, diced courgette, a sauce made with coconut cream, turmeric and ginger. That's the app's "balanced salmon and sweet potato plate", score 100, and it takes twenty minutes.

My top-rated Solaia recipes

To give you concrete ideas, here are the ones I rotate through, all scoring 100 out of 100:

• Soothing spinach and chickpea curry: chickpeas, fresh spinach, coconut milk, turmeric, brown rice. My menstrual-phase dish.
• Red lentil dahl with coconut milk and spinach: the batch-cooking version, I make it on Sunday for three days.
• Butternut squash and chickpea curry: the same logic in an autumn version.
• Omega-3 salmon with ginger: a fillet poached in a fresh ginger broth, with baby spinach.
• Pan-fried salmon with fennel and orange: for evenings when I want something fresher.
• Salmon and avocado tartare with sesame: zero cooking.

And for breakfast, the anti-inflammatory blueberry porridge (rolled oats, almond milk, ground flaxseeds, blueberries) scores 92 and takes a quarter of an hour.

You'll notice one thing in common: none of these recipes is complicated or expensive. Legumes, fish, spices, vegetables. Anti-inflammatory eating isn't one more diet. It's going back to simple cooking, and letting the body do the rest.